This is my yappy place. Sometimes I share my workshop experiences in jewelry-making; sometimes I talk about other things that interest me. I have created tabs along the top of my blog (next to the word home, below this msg) so you can select certain categories if you like.

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I really do struggle with "titles" for these posts. How dorky is that? Ha!

Okay, off to hockey tonight. Mon's team is going to be doing some hardcore skating drills for awhile because the coach wasn't too happy with their performance last weekend. We're not sure how this will affect the goalies so Gabe will go tonight (unless he severely objects) and spend some time with the goalies. Tomorrow, we can look at pads before heading to Vacaville.

I bought Gabe's Dallas ticket today.

I took some photos of new creations yesterday but then didn't have time to edit them, didn't yet shoot them on Mon, and forgot all about one really cool bracelet so will have to add that in when I have a chance (I hate setting up the whole photo set-up for just one piece of jewelry).

The water damage guys are leaving their equipment in the house for a few more days because there's still a lot of moisture down there. I need to contact the insurance company, I guess, too.

Oh, I'd better go call the phone company now... our phone is out of order.

Monday, September 29, 2008

So, there are still many things I want to talk about and respond to but for now I'll explain why I can't.

Weekends are pretty hockey-oriented (as most of you know) and week days are day job as well as hockey practices.

In my little bits of spare time, here are some of the things I've been taking care of:

Mon needs new goalie pads. No one around here has what Gabe wants for her so we'll have to order them from Goalie Monkey... but I insist that we go to X-Sport to try some on first so we at least have a better idea of what size to order.

Used my lunch hour today to deliver a custom jewelry order.

Still dealing with "the flood". The crew will come to the house today to see if they can take their equipment back. But based on what Gabe and I encountered last night (very humid and musty still), I'm thinking that room still has moisture in it. I have to call USAA and see if I have an adjuster and if so what he's doing.

Gabe leaves for Phoenix this Friday; I still have to book his Dallas flight; I need to see what Mon's team has scheduled for the weekend of October 25th because I was going to drive Gabe to Valencia for their first CAHA weekend.

My credit union just got taken over by another credit union and I have to notify like 20 companies that do automatic payments with me and give them my new credit card #... not that I even know if my new credit card is working. Argh!

I think I need a beadie jam... wonder what Alex and Patrice are up to lately.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

It's nice to know that there are people I like in this world who are still keeping in touch with me. I tend to lose people very easily (I'm guessing it's mostly because I get swept up with every day minutiae and forget what's really important in life).

Thanks for the encouragement on the toggle (in progress), Chris. I think it's rather large, but I can work on slimming down my next attempts. Have you done toggles or clasps in pc? I'd love to see them.

BTW, you and Amanda make a great team. I love the fall jewelry.

Cathleen, you'll have to share with me (if you will) the blogs you read on a daily basis. Are they any I've bookmarked to the right over there? Those are mostly lampworkers, I think. I seriously want to check them out all the time and I don't seem to get around to it. The internet is really a downfall for me... suddenly having so much at my fingertips is just overwhelming.

BTW, how many cats have you? My poor kitties are going through changes this year. And you know how cats LOVE change. I feel badly for them, but when my life changes, so do theirs.

Y'know, when you mention being able to "sense the weight" of what I'm going through these days, it makes me wonder if I'm too open, too upfront about what's on my mind or my plate. I don't usually have issues about being honest, but I don't want to "TMI" anyone to death. Ha ha! And I *really* don't want to come off sounding all complain-y. Ew!

Thanks for the positive vibes, though! :-)

You don't blog anywhere... like REALLY blog, do you? I mean, not that there's a proper formula for blogging, but I mean like journaling... telling us what goes through your mind... that sort of thing. I find you an interesting person and I'd like to know what you think about things.

I wish I could visit you. I feel that the work you do with metal and stone and glass is very much like what I want to do, but have fear in trying. I bet you could make me get over that fear. Maybe it's mostly a fear of the unknown.

Well, anyway... gotta go for now.

TTYL!

BTW, did I ever show this in my blog (can't remember)... it's a set I did as a custom order (shhhh! don't tell anyone)...

Monday, September 22, 2008

Hm. I guess it's been awhile again. I'd apologize, but I think my mom's the only one that reads this (hi Mom!), and she'd understand 'cause she knows how busy I am.

I have some decisions to make soon. Big decisions. I am not overly fond of responsibility and/or decisions. And I'm not sure I can do this job (my day job) for three more years. In the long run, three years shouldn't be a big deal, but we'll see. I foresee big changes before then. I could always try to transfer, though, too... if I moved somewhere else... just get another job with Kaiser... one with less responsibility and about one-third of the pay. At that point, I'd only be working for the benefits package anyway.

My head's been feeling a little pressurized lately (my actual head, not my thoughts). My doctor thinks it may be hormone related. He suggested I look into some herbs to help me through this changing time in my life. Phft! I wish I could remember to take my daily B vitamin. I'll work on making that more routine.

CreationsLast weekend I made the ring part of a fimo bar-and-toggle clasp. I need to polish it and make the bar part too.

This morning I started on my Egyptian thing. I wanted it to be a bracelet, but I'm not sure I trust glue to hole charms on a bracelet so I guess I'll make it a necklace. Bummer.

JewelryCleaned up some bead stuff yesterday. I like having my living room at least a BIT organized.

I gave Monica a charm bracelet to work on. I wonder what she did with it. I hope it came out well; I'd like her to make more of that style.

I made all of one bracelet this past weekend. That would normally seem pretty pathetic, but I cut myself some slack since I don't feel on top of the world right now.

I did finish a pair of earrings with an exquisite pair of Tourmalinated Quartz briolettes in them. I just want to change one more thing and then I can get them ready to photo.

More cats?!Yes, a new little one showed up at our house last week. She's gone now... gone as mysteriously as she arrived. But gosh she was a sweetheart! Totally loving.

MoviesI watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday. Hadn't seen it before. Now I'm watching The Chamber of Secrets. If I *have* seen this one, it was maybe only bits and pieces.

Last week we finished reading the final Harry Potter book. Next on the list is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

SRAJDThe girls (Patrice, Alex, Marilyn) are helping me set up a system so things run more smoothly in the future. Thanks!

Monday, September 15, 2008

I've got to tell you, it is HUGELY liberating getting rid of stuff. Coming to the conclusion that "I don't need this" is wonderful. I'm going through some papers and tossing most out and I ran across two published articles of mine. I set them aside thinking, "Well, I may need these… or what if I want to show someone someday that I was published, etc?" Ha ha ha! Yeah, after five minutes set aside on my desk, I turned back to them, picked them up and threw them in with the rest of everything that's going in the garbage. I think the articles were more of a representation of my ego than of anything I may really "need" in the future.

Very few of you could know how NOT ME this kind of action is. I've been a hoarder for 47 years. "I might need it someday!" was my mantra. Oh, this is so nice. It's a slow process, but at least it's begun.

SRAJDI spent the last several days working non-stop on the roster and other member information. Marilyn has joined the crew and wow what a help she is. She's getting me totally up to speed on all the past requests for roster changes. In a few days, we'll have a meeting and discuss dividing the work up so that things begin to run smoothly and efficiently.

Thanks for bearing with us. Didn't expect the group to take off with the speed it has. Wonderful and intimidating at the same time.

Anyway, I'm going to cut out now. A little out of energy these days (I think the whole family is fighting off some kind of bug… I'd better hit up the resources).

ContestOh yeah, and I need to update the contest since my migraine kept me from it for the past week.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

So, I'm on day three of trying to eat healthier. I'm going with a 40-40-30 breakdown (40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat) and trying to keep a daily caloric intake of 1500. I'm not planning on being a nutso calorie-counter… after all I'm not trying to DIET… I want to develop healthy eating habits… for life. But until I get a real feel for what's in what foods, I will read the labels.

My downfall so far is lack of exercise. Maybe tonight, while the kids are at goalie practice in Vacaville, I'll go to Target and pick up some walking shoes. Then I can walk while they're at the rink. I also need to get a decent pair of headphones or earbuds or something. I was trying to listen to my MP3 player last night at Mon's practice and the buds are crackly.

I haven't started weaning myself from coffee yet. I'll work on that later. No need to freak my body out all at once.

Monica's a big help. Her willpower is stronger than anyone's I've ever seen in my life. She's downright stubborn about it. She makes all three of our lunches in the morning (or the night before) and she helps me plan meals.

Good NewsOkay THIS is unbelievably good. It's one of those unexpected things. Over four months ago, I sent a package to one of my regular customers in England. She never got it. :-( We were both pretty unhappy with that. I haven't had very many packages go missing at all. Well, guess what showed up in my mailbox yesterday? Unbelievable. I couldn't be happier. I emailed her to see if she still want the order; if not I'll list the items again. I'm just so happy to have the package returned and it was so unexpected.

HockeyJust found out Gabe has a tournament in Dallas during the Thanksgiving holiday… his dad's weekend. Mon will be at an Anaheim tournament. I may be with her… undecided at the moment.

BeadingOh, and here's a note I want to remember, so what better place to put it than my blog? "… seed-bead manufacturer Toho has developed a permanent galvanized seed bead. I’ve worked with them quite a bit and they are very stable." This is from Jean Campbell who writes about beading and life every Wednesday on Beading Daily.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Paid bills today. Wow, there's a ton! I look forward to (maybe next yet?) not having any bills except things we use in our daily living... like PG&E, water, garbage, etc. And if I'm living in an apartment, I probably won't have some of those individual bills either.

JewelryHere's a sneak peak for an upcoming listing...

I need to get a shot of it on my model. :-)

Otherwise, here are the new listings (click on a pic for more info)...

FamilyThe kids had hockey this weekend... well, Monica only a practice on Friday. But Gabe had a scrimmage on Sunday. It was really fun to watch, but he was sad/disappointed at the end. They tied 4-4.

ListingI think maybe I'll try to list some books and/or things other than jewelry tonight. I have TOO MUCH STUFF in the house and it's moving out way too slowly. I know what one of my main problems is. I am worried that I won't get a fair value for the items. Or worse, I'll get some money and later it will turn out to be something worth much more. Bah! I need to get over that. A bird in the hand ... and all that. Besides, what if $20 is more important to me NOW than $200 is to me ten years from now?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

My mission today (aside from getting the kids to school and doing my day job) include:· Putting up a new face on the SRA Jewelry website for the month of September· Getting as many roster change emails into Marilyn's hands as possible· Looking back at my emails in "subject" order and trying to deal with some· Thinking long and hard about "the thing" that's on my mind (hint: woman resource)· Looking at my bills to see why I have a $600 PG&E bill :-(

Okay, that should be enough for one day, eh?

BTW, deleted several thousand emails today. Cool, huh? It's hard letting go, but really… if there's something I haven't printed, saved to disk, or responded to and it's over a year old… do I really still need it?

Ew gross!The last batch (don't recall experiencing this befoe) of Ziploc baggies that we bought exude a disgusting plastic odor that attaches itself to the food that's in it. Gross!

They say…That you can only taste things because you can smell them. And if you closed your nose, you couldn't TASTE the difference between an apple and an onion. I wonder if I should submit this to mythbusters. Ha ha ha! But really, it seems so…. Far-fetched.

I do know, however, that if I close my nose when I take my daily B vitamin it keeps me from gagging and retching over the dreadful taste/smell of the pill. As a matter of fact, I just took one (which made me think of this) and I didn't taste it at all. Hm…

StressI have some stress and I need to learn how to rise above the negative emotions that engulf me. Maybe I'll write down the three or four things I'm stressing over and then write down the emotions associated with them, and work on ways to detach myself from the emotions while still dealing with the stresses.

Anyway, gotta go now… TTYL! And don't worry about me. Worry is a misuse of imagination.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Call for EntriesHere's a heads up for a juried competition (um… aren't all competitions juried?... maybe I just don't know the lingo). I've never applied for a juried show before. I did apply to be part of Trunkt but they said they weren't interested and then closed themselves to jewelry maker applications. Ha ha ha!

Competition Snapshot:- Deadline for registration and submission is November 15, 2008.- Competition is open to myartspace members. Membership is free.- Registration fee is $50, but for early registration by October 15, 2008 the fee is $25.- Prestigious jury panel to be announced by September 10th to review and judge submissions.- Fifty finalists will be selected and announced by the jury panel.- Three winners will have their art represented at Art Basel Miami / Bridge Miami Beach.- Winners to be announced on November 25, 2008.

Let me know (add a comment!) if you enter an item. Yes, I'm curious like that.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Had a nice weekend. Lots of hockey and lots of driving, but it was still fun. Went to two BBQs. Had the whole family help get our bulky pick-up ready (now the backyard only has weeds in it, no garbage).

JewelryI'm very pleased with the four necklaces we just listed.

Click on the photos to see more details…

I'm also happy about some of the wire-work (beginner… very basic stuff) we accomplished while at the Vacaville rink. Two pair of earrings. I want to add patina to one or both of them… we'll have to see how much time is left after hockey tonight. Gabe's already started games, but I bet Mon can't wait… she LOVES games, especially games with lots of shots. I think there are only two second years on her team.

BTW, Reynolds company first used the push-in tabs on the sides of their packaging in 1996.